Southern California

Aug 21, 2011

Just back from 2 and a half weeks in the gorgeous California sunshine. No where near as hazy as it’s been in the past. Glorious time with family and friends. Reunion in Fullerton with folks who’d been my nearest and dearest decades ago. Many of whom I’d only recently reconnected with. But as often happens in cases like this…it was as if time hadn’t passed at all. And yet we all knew to what extent it had. Exquisitely beautiful group of people. Enjoyed working on a script polish with my friend Obie Scott Wade for a kids animated episodic he created that’s being prepped to launch SOON. If you don’t know his incredibly original stuff check out his website – www.obieco.com – I’ve got my fingers crossed that his new venture finds a wide and enthusiastic audience.

Ah, Los Angeles. God how I wanted to get the hell out of there when I was growing up! I was born right off the Hollywood freeway. Queen of Angels hospital. Hasn’t been that in eons. It became a major base of operations for Scientology. Oh well. Nothing stays the same. I remember my heartbreak when Turner bought MGM and changed its name, and Mann bought Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and changed its name…it’s been about the almighty buck forever…history be damned…ego is all. Super power…super success…super sized!!!! And you know what? Good for them. It ain’t the name of my game but who says it’s all got to be about me?

I actually remember telling people after I’d successfully fled East that being born and raised in Southern California was like living in an assisted living community. A well manicured one anyway. The grounds well tended, the staff friendly…always smiling, “Have a nice day”…sun shining almost the entirety of each and every year…Disneyland off season! Assisted living? More like assisted dying. California was like the geographic equivalent of the portrait of Dorian Gray. Who knows…it may very well be. But what place isn’t…to greater and lesser degrees?

One of the things some of us realize as we get older is that so much of the shit we think about people, places and things has nothing to do with them…it’s all projected bullshit from within. I wasn’t happy so L.A. became associated with my unhappiness. So now…thankfully…I love going home.